


the place where home is

by crystalldragon



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Genyatta Week, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-16 23:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16504976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalldragon/pseuds/crystalldragon
Summary: Travelling had suited Genji and had helped him in healing more during his time with the Shambali. It gave him, just as Zenyatta, a chance to look at things – more specifically: life – in different ways. But in the end it also made him realize something else.Written for Genyatta Week Autumn 2018, Day 7 "Traveling/Home"





	the place where home is

Travelling had suited Genji and had helped him in healing more during his time with the Shambali. It gave him, just as Zenyatta, a chance to look at things – more specifically: life – in different ways. But in the end it also made him realize something else.

 

“Out of all the places we went to so far, which one did you like best?” Zenyatta asks.

 

They had been to numerous places together. Each and every place cleared up something else in them, made them learn something new. Everyone they’ve met had a different story to share. Zenyatta had said it reminded him why he left the Shambali in the first place. To sit high up in the mountains and pray won’t do any good to anyone, he used to say. One needs to go and meet the people in person, listen to their stories, learn about their experiences and empathize with their emotions. Genji learned what he meant by this during their travels. Sure, he had seen much of Japan with his family and much of the rest of the world during his time with Overwatch, but that had been from another perspective. He was not wholly at peace with himself and the world then, much less open to the hearts and thoughts of others.

All those experiences paled in comparison to his time with Zenyatta. He learned more about humans and omnics alike than he’d learned in his whole lifetime before. Only because he was able to open his eyes and his heart to every piece of life and experience what life had to offer to its fullest extent. 

He couldn’t even begin to pinpoint what was the best experience, because they were all the best. If he was to be honest, every moment he got to spent with Zenyatta was the best, be it good or bad.

 

“Hm… I guess I liked Nepal.”

Kathmandu was a great place, so Genji found. It reminded him, as he said, of a mixture of his birthplace and the familiar ambience of the Shambali monastery.

“… Japan was quite good too.”

He always had had a soft spot for his homeland. It bore a certain kind of traditional, simplistic beauty one could not ignore. But the end of his family’s intrigues, accompanied by the end of his own life, had tainted his memories of the country in a bittersweet lump of sadness and anger. To replace those negative feelings with new ones, made with Zenyatta by his side, was more than he could’ve hoped for.

“… and something about the area around the Mediterranean Sea struck me as well.”

A smile resides on his face as he thinks of those memories while looking out to the mountain vale, feeling contented and at peace.

Zenyatta chuckles, and it is that one sort of chuckle he utters when he’s amused by one of Genji’s answers. Though right now Genji can’t put his finger on why he would be amused, since he gave a sincere answer.

“I was asking because I was interested in hearing if you have a favorite place to be, one that resembles your definition of ‘home’ the most to you.”

 

 _Oh_. So that was it.

Was he asking this because he wanted to get rid of him?

The smile slowly disappears from Genji’s face and is replaced by a blank expression. He continues to stare off into the distance, thinking thoroughly, looking like he’s hoping to find his answers out there.

 _Home_. So that’s what this is about. Surely this was Zenyatta expecting him to fully come to terms with his past, move on and find a place to settle down.

“Home…” he stutters, “I am not sure what…”

A sudden wave of panic hits Genji as he is confronted with one of the final frontiers of his path to healing. Where his place in the world is. A question he never had and still has no answer to. Tears form in his before he can continue, dropping onto his cheeks, down to his hands and the valley before them. 

“Genji?” The voice that had just sounded playful is now filled with worry. Worry for… him.

And Genji finds again, as he’s filing through all the places he’s been, all the people he’s seen, nothing and no one is feeling like home. Just like in his youthful days, where he would desperately look for a place to belong. He still hasn’t found a place in the world after all. Not the Shambali, not Overwatch, not the Shimadas, not the humans, not the omnics. Suddenly he’s moving automatically, ready to fall into that deep pit, like he’d done so many times in his life, where’d spent most of his life – but now …

There’s another soul holding his in place, a steady metallic hand on his shoulder and he moves his head to the side, looks upon the silver faceplate and those nine blue shining dots, and he comes to another final resolution.

“There was no place like that,” he says at last. “But there’s a person like that.”

His smile reappears, now filled with love, appreciation and thankfulness, and he’s sure Zenyatta’s dots shine brighter too. He moves forward and steals one of the smallest of kisses, withdrawing after just a few seconds.

“I know that just sounded like on of the cheesiest things ever, but…” he starts, still embarrassed by his words and actions.

“You will not take that back,” Zenyatta demands, and that’s one of the very few occasions in which he uses the imperative, which throws Genji off even more. He can’t help but laugh, and Zenyatta joins him in his laughter, putting his faceplate against Genji’s forehead – his version of a kiss.

“I will not,” Genji reassures him, intertwining their hands and listening to Zenyatta’s soft laughter going on.

“There’s nowhere and no one I’d rather have as my home. As long as I am beside you, I don’t care where I am.”

Zenyatta hums in an affectionate tone, squeezing his hands lightly.

“Then I am glad, because I feel the same.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!


End file.
